{"id":154860,"date":"2026-02-23T16:26:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=154860"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:26:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:26:47","slug":"imf-head-visits-to-inspect-the-damage-its-doing-to-sri-lanka-us-pacific-commander-visits-too-what-outrages-await-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/02\/23\/imf-head-visits-to-inspect-the-damage-its-doing-to-sri-lanka-us-pacific-commander-visits-too-what-outrages-await-us\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF Head Visits to Inspect the Damage It\u2019s Doing to Sri Lanka; US Pacific Commander Visits Too \u2013 What Outrages Await\u00a0Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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blog: https:\/\/eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 15-21 February 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capitalist media keeps saying that the Jeffrey Epstein expos\u00e9 is the \u2018worst sex abuse scandal in US history\u2019. Really?<\/em> Strange then, how very few corporate \u2018executives\u2019 in the US seem to have been indicted for these crimes. But, but\u2026 \u2018the worst<\/em>\u2019?  The USA (& their European sponsors) has been waging genocidal wars from their very birth, involving all manner of abuse & mutilation & desecration of bodies, alive & dead. Scalping<\/em><\/strong> was an English <\/strong>invention for acounting purposes. And several US states were involved in the business of slave breeding <\/strong>(to supply the southern US plantations), which involved the systematic organization of rape, of women & children. The US government\u2019s own disclosures at the recent Munich Conference in Europe make it plain that they aim to keep waging war on our countries (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>, Rubio). They insist they have nothing to be ashamed of \u2013 which is why they\u2019re better called the United States of Amnesia<\/em><\/strong>. So what exactly is the media diverting<\/strong> from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The headlined arrest (& immediate release) of an Englishman named Andrew (formerly known as their Prince<\/em><\/strong>) diverts from the depredations of his older brother Charles (now known as their King, parading as a heterosexual in a \u2018marriage blanc\u2019, i.e., in holy matrimony for show), whose relatives & \u2018peers\u2019 (\u2018Lord\u2019 Louis Mountbatten, etc) were well known for their outr\u00e9 sexual proclivities in \u2018their\u2019 colonies & other resorts around the world. Less publicized are the actions of Epstein\u2019s financier Les Wexner<\/strong>, the owner of Victoria\u2019s Secret<\/em><\/strong>, a top brand, related to a \u2018leading\u2019 rag trader in Sri Lanka, the Brandix Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The English Queen Victoria\u2019s real \u2018secret\u2019 were the lengths that history books have gone, to hide the immense famines her majesty\u2019s government policies engendered around the world to institutionalize the great divergence (between \u2018east\u2019 and \u2018west\u2019, or \u2018north\u2019 and \u2018south\u2019 or whatever euphemisms one uses to contrast oppressor and oppressed, exploiter and exploited). There is more written about her Belgian first cousin \u2018King\u2019 Leopold\u2019s depredations in the Congo, but more important is Leopold\u2019s sponsor, the plantation owner William Lever, who originated what is now the multinational, Unilever).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The media in Sri Lanka seems to have rather too quickly shrugged off further investigation into the Epstein-Wexner link involving our merchants, especially since these are employers of large numbers of young women & men (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>). The media claim instead there is little in the infamous Epstein\u2019s files relating to the predilections of this country\u2019s \u2018private\u2019 sector. Perhaps they have been too busy facilitating (lubricating?) our links to the \u2018leading\u2019 importers & exporters of this world, who are afforded a type of princely teflon treatment in the media. Organized crime is apparently just the province of rube villagers, whose village names are prefixed onto their gang monikers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The arrival in Sri Lanka this week of England\u2019s Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy<\/strong>, amidst all the hyper judicial frippery in England, any questions about those matters, were diplomatically avoided by our local \u2018free media\u2019. He was, we are told, here to \u2018reinforce investor confidence\u2019. This \u2018Afro-Saxon\u2019 of Guyanese origin, has supposedly been a veritable \u2018Hound of the Baskervilles\u2019 in pursuing accusations of \u2018war crimes\u2019 against Sri Lanka\u2019s armed forces personnel, rather than England\u2019s own international war crimes recent & historic (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>). This same gentleman recently cut off journalists\u2019 digital access to English court records<\/strong>. \u2018English media are kept ignorant of most trials, and only certain trials are publicized\u2019 (see last week\u2019s ee<\/em><\/strong>). So now we know only certain criminals get chosen to be perp-walked before flashing cameras \u2013 for English justice is a staged script of a different literary genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The head of the USA\u2019s International Monetary Fund (IMF<\/strong>), Kristalina Georgieva, also arrived in Sri Lanka from 16\u2013<\/sup>18th <\/sup>February. Then the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet<\/strong> Steve Koehler arrived from the 19th<\/sup>-21st<\/sup>. It was then announced, \u2018A Sri Lankan-made food & travel series will premiere [on Feb 20th<\/sup>] across South Asia on National Geographic<\/em> \u2013 a platform synonymous with global storytelling.\u2019Platform? <\/em>They\u2019ve long been much more than a magazine \u2013 linked to US Naval Intelligence, using \u2018exotic\u2019 stories, \u2018nature\u2019, \u2018anthropology\u2019, etc., as a cover (\u2018Have camera, will travel! Bang! Bang!<\/em>\u2019). All these characters, from IMF to Navy, are now to be followed by the USA\u2019s Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Sri Lanka) hosting \u2018its flagship CEO Forum 2026\u2019. \u2018Accelerating Sri Lanka\u2019s Rebuild\u2019 on 25 February (see ee Who\u2019s Who<\/em><\/strong>), which will \u2018bring together over 250 C-level executives, policymakers, development partners, & global thought <\/em>leaders<\/strong>\u2019. Whoa!<\/em> Rebuild, indeed (like Gaza!). And so begins a season ushering in our own April new year, preceded by Ramadan and Lent and the start of the Chinese zodiac\u2019s New Year of the Horse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     So, is this all \u2018strategic sequencing\u2019<\/em><\/strong>? We may be forgiven for likening this trail of visitors to another episode in the US foreign policy version of their World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where one hulking grappler follows another into a blood and tomato-sauce-encrusted ring to battle another grappler \u2013 tag wrestling, which usually ends in a free-for-all. IMF Georgieva\u2019s visit was set to coincide with \u2018the 75th<\/sup> anniversary of Sri Lanka\u2019s IMF membership & the 75th<\/sup> anniversary of Central Bank of Sri Lanka\u2019. Well, how auspicious is this! Does she do this with every country? That\u2019s a huge travel bill!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The IMF head\u2019s arrival was heralded with the usual blizzard of adulatory (more accurately: \u2018obsequious\u2019 aka \u2018ass-kissing\u2019) news items. She is quoted uttering various jargons & indices, arranging photo-ops with hostage children whose names are not given. Her meeting with the country\u2019s President was described as a \u2018rare high-level engagement\u2019. The news headlines began with her hailing their IMF program as a \u2018success story\u2019 (talk about MPHOT \u2013 Monkey Praising Her Own Tail?<\/em><\/strong>), and as she exited, the stories were back to the old whining about Sri Lanka\u2019s need to sell more national assets (privatization!<\/strong>) & weaken labour laws (\u2018flexibility<\/em><\/strong>\u2019!), more \u2018discipline\u2019, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Amidst the swishing of her invisible fiscal whip (try not to picture: the Central Bank governor happily bending over, with his pants down?), the US Pacific Commander<\/strong> then arrived, bedecked in white uniform, shirt pocket bespeckled with colored ribbons (we imagine as souvenirs for bombing fishing boats! Oh wait, there was a story this week about another \u2018drug-trafficking boat\u2019 with 11 un-named \u2018male narco-terrorists\u2019 being bombed both in the Caribbean & \u2018Eastern Pacific\u2019, wherever that is). The news blizzard accompanying Georgieva was reduced to a flurry with the Navy Commander\u2019s clipped verbiage. He chirped about\u2018shared values\u2019<\/em><\/strong> and then it was quickly back to those euphemisms (Ahem! Ahem!<\/em>) about \u2018transnational threats\u2019<\/em> & \u2018defence\u2019. Having changed the title of its military department from the Department of Defense to Department of War<\/strong>, it follows that whenever the US speaks of \u2018defense<\/em>\u2019, they mean war!<\/strong> And we must assume by \u2018transnational<\/em>\u2019 he doesn\u2019t mean the dangers posed by transnational or multinational corporations (MNCs) like Rockefeller\u2019s Exxon or Citibank\u2026 or Unilever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This US Navy Commander apparently even \u2018commanded\u2019 news items \u2013 the Wijeya Group\u2019s Daily Mirror<\/em> just reproduced the US embassy\u2019s press release<\/strong> as a DM<\/em> news story: \u2018The US Pacific Fleet \u2013 the largest naval fleet command in the world \u2013 operates across half the globe, protecting<\/strong> vital sea lanes and connecting<\/strong> partners throughout the Indo-Pacific.\u2019 OK! Then this item (minus quote marks) parading as \u2018news\u2019, referred to \u2018our<\/em> confidence\u2019\u2026 \u2018our<\/em> partners\u2019 and claimed his \u2018second visit\u2026 underscores our<\/em> shared long-term commitment to a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific\u2019. \u2018Our<\/em>\u2019 may refer to the Daily Mirror<\/em> & the US government. Really! Does the local media charge ad rates for such reprints? They\u2019d be really rich if they did. Well, they probably do, but it is undeclared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In the background, in other BBC <\/em>news item parading as \u2018international news\u2019, we heard the head of Koehler\u2019s government, President Don Trump, cursing the English government for \u2018leasing\u2019 from Mauritius, the island Diego Garcia<\/strong>, on which the US has a military base. There is no mention that England just leased Diego Garcia again to the USA for 100 years. England claims the \u2018lease\u2019 from Mauritius is for \u2018legal\u2019 reasons. Is this what \u2018free & open\u2019 means? Behind all this \u2018free & open\u2019 chatter, is the gathering yet again of another killer US fleet to bomb Iran, including from Diego Garcia. Midst all this we assume the next US envoy to Sri Lanka, Eric Meyer, much heralded but not arrived yet, will show up at Kollupitiya Junction in a puff of smoke, with archangels or B52s adding to the divine spectacle of gloom, doom and boom (for more, see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     There is much evidence to suggest that a more horrific spectacle will be staged to divert us from their \u2018always dying yet still not dead\u2019 capitalism. It is long past its \u2018expiry date\u2019. The Indian Coast Guard has also joined in their game, and deployed \u201855 ships & 10-12 aircraft for round-the-clock surveillance in its maritime zones\u2019 (which apparently includes us), and seized \u2018Iran-linked US-sanctioned tankers\u2019. While there are many headlines to praise India\u2019s largess towards our country, none of these Indian coast guard vessels seem to be able to apprehend the piratical Indian fishing & other fleets that keep robbing Sri Lanka of its marine resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018More than one million households have<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 been pushed off the electrical grid.\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Not everyone is amused: \u2018A bitter irony<\/strong>\u2019 is how the Yukthi Collective<\/strong> greeted the IMF head\u2019s visit<\/strong>, while calling for \u2018debt suspension\u2019<\/strong> instead of mere tinkering (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). Georgieva has apparently promised to build \u2018a more resilient future\u2019. The IMF\u2019s 61 years in Sri Lanka have, instead, says Yukthi, \u2018eroded resilience, dismantled state capacity, and locked the country into a debt-dependent future<\/strong>\u2019. Yukthi catalogues a litany of further deadly measures, the IMF is demanding to be enacted. Yukthi says the IMF policies \u2018ensure the next crisis is already in motion\u2019. The IMF has directed investment away from health & education<\/strong>, for which Sri Lanka has so far been famous for. Instead, the IMF has prioritized paying off Wall Street! While the IMF & World Bank cry about the cyclone, the government is only allowed to dedicate a fraction of its budget to relief. And so-called green bonds & blue bonds<\/em><\/strong> turn out to be mere financial chicanery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Yukthi calls for the \u2018auditing for illegitimate debt, curbing illicit financial flows, and closing tax loopholes for the corporate sector<\/strong>\u2019. They say the \u2018best sympathy\u2019 Kristalina Georgieva can give the people of Sri Lanka is for the IMF to take its hands off our future<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em>By the way, the Yukthi<\/em> polemic was carried in the Financial Times<\/em>, but somehow did not feature in their online columns section. Ahem!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018If you look at Sri Lanka\u2019s debt crisis\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

it is not because of China or India or Japan.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main culprits are the [ISB] bond markets<\/em><\/strong>\u2026\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There is a lot of financing for green energy. But<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often\u2026 a lot of that is \u2018green washing\u2019<\/strong>\u2026\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in this ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, the economist Ahilan Kadirgamar insists in The Daily Mirror<\/em>, that we \u2018Don\u2019t Count on the IMF or World Bank\u2019. Kadirgamar details how the global order (imperialism?) has undermined our state institutions, turning them into puppets of the private sector. Isn\u2019t this the very epitome of \u2018corruption<\/em><\/strong>\u2019? He details the various \u2018crises\u2019 \u2013 1997, 2008, etc. \u2013 caused by the \u2018global system of free trade, & the free flow of finance\u2019. \u2018Half of the countries in the developing [sic!] world, are facing some kind of debt problem.\u2019 With all these \u2019restructurings\u2019, the Sri Lankan economy will in 2034 go back to the lower poverty levels of 2017-18! Instead of rebuilding the historic irrigation system, or the public transportation system (The media, beholden to the private car import mafia, is also not decrying the shocking fact that the Colombo-Kandy railway, a commuter & tourism lifeline, may not be repaired til year end!  Instead, the government is importing luxuries, including more cars! He also points to how the burden of rectifying so-called climate change has been cast onto our shoulders. Our debts are mostly paying off bonds to Wall Street, and our \u2018total interest payment is almost equal to the principal!<\/strong>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Liberals want Sri Lanka\u2019s unjustly calculated debt to take capricious \u2018climate change\u2019 into account. The merchants & moneylenders wish to game the climate into the equation with their fake green & blue bonds. But what about global warring & global whitening? Their arbitrary wars & sanctions have made an import-export dependent economy subject to the whims of imperialism. Should these events too be calculated into the mix, of who really owes who?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     One other matter: Kadirgamar implies that the first international sovereign bond (ISB<\/strong>) was taken during Mahinda Rajapakse\u2019s reign. This is true, but most ISBs were post-2017, during the reign of the US-funded Yahapalana regime. He uses this to argue that the second wave of liberalization happened under Mahinda. No, after JR in 1977, the second wave began in 1994 under President CB Kumaratunga. Among the liberal economists it is widely recognized that the \u2018liberalization\u2019 process actually stalled under MR! Perhaps it is this, more than the ending of the war, that incurred the wrath of the merchant media against the Rajapakses,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 After decades of over-the-top threats and rhetoric to impose \u2018free trade\u2019 on our countries, the hysteric protectionist policies pursued by the imperialist powers today, resemble those of the 1930s during \u2018depression\u2019<\/strong>, especially with regard to \u2018raw materials\u2019. Witness the recent \u2018Buy European Only\u2019<\/em><\/strong> policy (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>). Back then too, between their world wars, they began to systematically cut off supplies, even to each other. This was evident in the battles between England, which controlled production of raw rubber, and US manufacturers using rubber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Such matters are discussed in ee<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s conclusion of Chapter 7 of SBD de Silva\u2019s classic<\/strong> The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. <\/em>Focusing on \u2018Plantations & their Metropolitan Orientation\u2019, de Silva also discusses the impact of technological improvements such as the substitution of inorganic materials, reducing the need for organic goods supplied by plantation economies. This matter of substitution by multinational corporations should concern us greatly as they are now removing their fingerprints from directly administering plantations (in terms of labor & environmental impact & responsibility, in particular) and microfinance, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The other important insight in this SBD de Silva excerpt is: There are 2 kinds of technological improvements: <\/strong>those that \u2018raise the yield per hectare<\/strong> without a basic change in capital-labour ratios or in the organic composition of capital<\/strong> \u2026 The 2nd type of improvement is the substitution of capital for labour<\/strong>, with a concomitant rise in labour productivity<\/strong> and a decline in the unit cost of output<\/strong>\u2026 Such technology<\/strong> is characteristic of production in the developed economies<\/strong>, both in manufacturing industry<\/strong> & in agriculture<\/strong>, and it differs qualitatively from that adopted by the plantations\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Wijeya Group\u2019s Financial Times<\/em> (FT) <\/em>published a column, \u2018Environmental Impact Quotient of Pesticides<\/strong>: Catalyst for sustainable agricultural futures<\/em>\u2019, on 20 February, by Professor Buddhi Marambe, who FT<\/em> describes as \u2018attached to the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya\u2019. However, Marambe is also a director of the English multinational ICI, known as CIC<\/strong> in Sri Lanka, which has more than anyone drenched this country in dangerous chemistries. Should not this crucial information on his \u2018private\u2019 affiliations be included in his attached biography with the article? Only listed as Professor<\/em>, working in a state-funded university, may suggest he is speaking on behalf of the public good. Let it be recalled, Marambe, on behalf of chemical importers like ICI-CIC, also led the assault on & the sabotage of the attempts by the Gotabaya Rajapakse government to introduce \u2018organic\u2019 fertilizer, half-baked & ill-conceived a policy though it may have been. Next time a beloved, relative or friend falls ill, gets a malignant cancer, it may behoove the media owners to reflect on such subterfuge practised by those who sometimes claim to be guardians of the public right to know<\/strong><\/em>. Jayavayvaa!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

_________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
IMF Head Visits to Inspect the Damage It’s Doing to Sri Lanka; US Pacific Commander Visits Too \u2013 What Outrages Await Us?<\/a><\/blockquote>